Serendipitous. (adj) Occurring or discovered by chance in a happy or beneficial way.

That’s just one of many adjectives that one could use while describing the happy meeting between Claudia and Tony.

Way back when, in a random conversation with a new friend at the gym, Claudia revealed that she was single. Dates here and there but nothing serious. Her friend Regina excitedly insisted that she knew the perfect guy for her and that they should plan a double date! Claudia agreed, but didn’t think much of it.

Fast forward a few weeks, she received a LinkedIn request from a handsome stranger. Not only did she accept, but she friend requested him on Facebook a week later.

After hours of messaging and a lengthy phone conversation that night, they agreed to meet up later in the week for a bite to eat at a local eatery. They both took friends to this casual meet up because hey, you never know if you’re meeting up with a serial killer or a stage 5 clinger. 😉 Luckily, neither was the case!

That very weekend, Claudia was telling her friend Regina all about this handsome man she met online recently. As she was gushing the details to her friend, she opened up a photo of him on her phone to show off her newest potential.

After many squeals and OMGEEEing from Regina, she told Claudia that HE was the one! The perfect guy that she wanted to introduce her to! It must be fate, destiny, meant to be!

However, even after all the excitement, Tony disappeared from Claudia’s life after a few more texts here and there. As disappointed as Claudia was, she shrugged it off and accepted it as another chapter in “the story of her dating life.”

Over the next month, Claudia focused all of her attention on finishing graduate school and moving into her new apartment. Occasionally, she would think about that handsome stranger and wonder what happened…

Meanwhile, Tony was busy getting his affairs in order. He knew that he had found “the one”. He was completely smitten and moved with her smile and knew that he needed this beautiful soul in his life.

After about a month of no contact, he finally reached out to Claudia. Even though she tried to resist and play hard to get, she couldn’t deny the connection they shared. She reluctantly replied to his text and agreed to a date… And the rest is history!

Tony won over the rest of Claudia’s family with his honesty, sincerity, and confidence.

After about a year of dating, the marriage talk became more serious. One day, while out shopping, Tony took Claudia to look at rings. As Claudia was picking one out, their shopping companion (Tony’s daughter Ayva) said, “Dddaaadddd! You have to get on your knee and ask her!”

So right there, in the jewelry store, he got down on one knee and asked Claudia to marry him. If you couldn’t guess, her answer was YES!

It was such a pleasure getting to know Claudia and Tony over the course of the last year. From their engagement session in Fresno to the many emails and conversations back and forth, I knew that their wedding would be nothing short of spectacular!